Science & Tech

Science & Tech

Explore the discoveries that reveal how the world works, alongside the technologies that extend, reshape, and sometimes challenge what’s possible.

A man stands on stage before an audience, with a backdrop reading "A Night of Awe & Wonder" and the John Templeton Foundation logo.
Big Think and the John Templeton Foundation gathered scientists, artists, and storytellers in Los Angeles to explore the power of awe.
A diagram illustrating one of the biggest mysteries: the origin of the universe, from the Big Bang and inflation to today, showing the formation of atoms, stars, galaxies, and the ongoing expansion of space.
Our Standard Model of the Universe, for both particle physics and cosmology, remains intact for now. When will its foundations crack?
Diagram showing light from a distant galaxy bending around a red-hued massive object, reaching telescopes on Earth via different paths and at different times.
With the observation of SN 2025wny, a lensed superluminous supernova, astronomy's future comes into sharp, exciting focus.
Illustration of various carbon molecules, including buckyballs and graphene sheets, floating in space near a bright cosmic background with stars and nebulae.
It takes a wide variety of processes in the Universe to make all the elements that populate space today. We're still discovering new ones!
A row of black and blue server racks in a data center, where LLMs power chatbot solutions, with illuminated green lights and a white tile floor with black circular vents.
As technology advances, more opportunities for cheating arise. Large language models aren't posing a new problem; they're how students cheat themselves.
A woman with straight black hair, wearing a black turtleneck, poses against a blue-to-white gradient background.
There are two sides to the AI debate, and both are perpetuating the idea that AI is “inevitable, all-powerful, and deserves to be controlled by a tiny group of people,” says the Empire of AI author.
existence of God
Science isn't absolute. Its truths and discoveries enable us to approximate reality, but we must always remain open-minded to revisions.
A grid of six astronomical images shows different examples of gravitationally lensed quasars, each labeled with its unique identification code and relevant to studies addressing Hubble tension.
The method you use to measure the expanding Universe determines which of two answers you'll get. Lensed supernovae can't resolve that issue.
satellites
Scientific truths remain true regardless of belief. These 10, despite contrary claims, remain vitally important as 2025 draws to a close.
Arianna Huffington, in a maroon dress, sits holding a microphone and smiling in front of a light grey and white background.
The HuffPost co-founder is now focusing on AI and health — but she’s keeping an eye on agency and human nature.
Digital artwork of a humanoid figure with a distorted, glitch-like effect and swirling, contour-like lines against a dark, pixelated background, reminiscent of the innovative AI art explorations by Blaise Agüera y Arcas.
Researcher and Google CTO Blaise Agüera y Arcas joins us to discuss his new book, "What Is Intelligence?"
An Ishihara color blindness test with colored dots, showing letters “u” and “d” in black, and a magnified section highlighting the dot pattern—inviting viewers to observe proton decay through subtle visual cues.
As the lightest baryon in the Universe, the proton is thought by many to be eternally stable. But if it isn't, can we observe it decaying?
Two space telescopes with solar panel arrays are shown against a plain, dark background. NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory is represented by one with a hexagonal mirror, highlighting its role in advancing space science.
Finding alien Earths requires seeing Earth-sized planets at Earth-like distances from Sun-like stars. A new discovery completes the roadmap.
A mesmerizing starry sky with shooting stars and a majestic tree.
With a waning Moon and a denser-than-ever debris trail, 2025's Geminids might be the year's best meteor shower, and 2026's could be amazing.
Tim O'Reilly, an older man with short gray hair wearing a light blue button-up shirt, stands outdoors with arms crossed, surrounded by green trees.
Media trailblazer Tim O’Reilly tells Big Think why AI requires "get yourself dirty" work — and warns us not to buy the hype.
millennium simulation cosmic web slice
We have a picture of how and when it will all come to an end. These three big ideas could still profoundly change how our cosmos evolves.
Illustration depicting cosmic evolution from the Big Bang, through inflation and CMB, to the large-scale cosmic web. As time advances from 0 to 13.8 billion years, SPHEREx's mapping of galaxies teaches what CMB can't about our universe's development.
Science has assembled an incredible story outlining our Universe's whole history. Despite its unrivaled success, 9 profound gaps remain.
Two side-by-side images of the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula showcase different views with vibrant colors and star-filled backgrounds, embodying the great paradox of beauty within science.
There are so many problems, all across planet Earth, that harm and threaten humanity. Why invest in researching the Universe?
A sequence of four orange and black butterflies in motion, captured against a black background, their blurred wings a graceful display of butterfly wisdom in flight.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
el gordo JWST rotated cropped
Although American Thanksgiving only comes once a year, the scientific rules that make our Universe possible are always worth appreciating.